Lufthansa Group's withdrawal of its lowest Light economy and Business Saver business class fares from global distribution systems is the latest push in its mission to transform airline distribution. For an update on the group's plans, The Beat met Lufthansa Group SVP sales hub airlines and chief commercial officer of the Frankfurt hub Heike Birlenbach, Lufthansa's key distribution strategist from a commercial viewpoint, at the Global Business Travel Association Europe conference in Berlin.

Corporate travel industry veteran Andy McGraw joined Milwaukee-based Adelman Travel as CEO in May 2017. Since then, the travel management company has positioned itself as a mobile-first "platform as a service" operator, underpinned by its mobile app, Adelman Virtual Assistant, or AVA, and an upgrade to its workforce management and agent-facing technology. He spoke with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer.

Certares founder and American Express Global Business Travel chairman Greg O'Hara sat down with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer at The Beat Live to talk about Amex GBT's HRG acquisition and Certares' investment approach and to share other observations on the business.

A one-time GDS exec with Amadeus, Farelogix CEO Jim Davidson has been an occasional GDS provocateur, gadfly and agitator, especially when his business was premised on GDS-bypass. Now, he's working more and more with the GDSs and is bullish on the airline distribution complex putting old-fashioned protocols behind it and moving into a more modern era. He recently spoke with The Beat.

This month, New Zealand-based corporate T&E tech company Serko announced its first-ever annual profit, for its fiscal year ending in March, and achieved Level 3 status as a seller in the International Air Transport Association's New Distribution Capability program. CEO Darrin Grafton caught up with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer.

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